Initial Concepts for Making (Perfect) World(Translated from Chinese text written by Pak Sheung Chuen)

My exhibition in Venice is divided into four sections, and the respective themes are: Harbour, Hong Kong, Alienated Cities and Dreams. These themes will layer and build on top of each other to illustrate a cohesive vision. Apart from re-editing a selection of my old works to coincide with the site and context of Venice, a series of newly commissioned works is also produced in both Hong Kong and Venice for the exhibition.

Harbour (sea) represents imagination rather than the physical quality and definition of water. It draws imagination from the Harbour (sea) to expand life's ordinariness by creating artworks out of everyday objects, thus turning meaningless objects into meaningful artworks. With the help of another set of "eyes" that are hidden behind our physical eyes, one can see and discover new meanings in the most ordinary things.

Hong Kong is a city filled with contradictions, we, Hong Kongers, are used to living and breathing with vaguely purposeful (or utterly purposeless) things and objects. These things and objects resemble various symbols that are scattered across the city, waiting and longing to be elucidated. Only those elements with a purpose will have a deep impact on our lives.

From the visual element of the city to physical presence within it, I choose to isolate myself from Hong Kong in Alienated Cities, which in turn will develop a truly personal experience through unfamiliar streetscapes, languages and cultures, thus granting me the ability to interpret and reflect on Hong Kong (a city with which I am too familiar) from a different viewpoint in order to understand it better.

Dreams is a combination of past memories and future imaginations. In my opinion, most memories are trivial, but marked by sadness and happiness in between. My works will perhaps act as an initiation for realising future happy memories.